Malware is software built for one reason and one reason only—to disrupt or damage your computer systems. This is why it is important not to click on suspicious links, or to download software or any other material with which you are unfamiliar.
Pretty straight-forward, universal knowledge, right?
Not really.
Of course, even those who are meticulously careful about the links they click on and the information they download can end up with harmful or suspicious malware on their computer. It is for this reason that the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Anti-Malware Working Group has joined forces with the FBI to combat malware.
Both parties have been working long and hard to combat malware, but believe they will achieve greater success by working together. While not all malware will harm your computer, it can utilize your computer for activities you are unaware of—such as surfing the web in hidden windows as bot traffic.
This is not the FBI’s first attempt to take on malware, but it is the first industry-wide partnership with the department.
“In the advertising space, what we’re particularly worried about is the type of malware that will basically make your computer a zombie, or a bot, and will begin to generate non-human traffic back to criminal websites or just selling traffic on networks or exchanges,” IAB official Mike Zaneis tells AdAge.
